Basketball is an American game; its standard terminology is used throughout. Dr. Naismith is commonly given credit for inventing basketball when he first mounted a peach basket on a wall and threw a ball into it. Originally a peach basket was mounted on each end of a court with an attendant standing by to remove the ball from the basket (the probable source for the term "basket") and return the basket ball to the court for further play. Since that time, there has been a never-ending search for means and methods to efficiently and economically collect the ball from the basket and return it to play after each shot.
The common picture of Indiana farm boys shooting at a hoop mounted to a barn, or their city cousins shooting at a hoop mounted to a garage has certain drawbacks. First, after passing through the net for a score, the ball inevitably tends to remain more or less beneath the hoop. Second, so-called "air balls", i.e., those wild shots which totally miss hoop and backboard, tend to hit the building upon which the hoop is mounted which does not please the owner of the building. Third, missed shots bounding off the hoop or the backboard tend to go in unpredictable directions and rarely return to the exact location desired. An additional problem arises when the basketball goal, i.e., a ringed hoop attached to a vertically disposed backboard, is mounted on a pole to avoid having air balls hit a building. Then an air ball has no structure to hit and tends to travel past the goal until it hits some restraint, which may be a very long way away from the goal.
The defects in these prior set ups are obvious. One or more chasers are required if concentrated beneficial shooting practice is to occur. Even then, the ball tends to get away every so often and practice is delayed unless an inordinate supply of extra balls is available. Further, basic human nature dictates that everyone wants to be a "shooter" while no one wants to be a "chaser". The combination of human and mechanical problems tends to make the efficient and concentrated practice of shots from preselected positions or directions virtually impossible.
Various devices have been suggested by the art to overcome these problems. Several of the devices taught have overcome some of the problems described above, but none have heretofore provided all of the necessary characteristics and flexibility to be truly useful in solving the practice problem. For instance, Shisoff, U.S. Pat. No. 1,924,757 disclosed an amusement apparatus for shooting baskets at an amusement park. It tended somewhat to corral errant shots by means of fixed barriers placed on both sides of and extending several feet in front of the basket. The barriers allowed only shots from dead ahead of the basket to be taken. Further, the device does not immediately return the ball to the shooter after the shot. After each shot, balls are accumulated until the predetermined number has been gathered.
McNabb, U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,550 disclosed a basketball retrieval and return device which also had several drawbacks. First, the shooter can shoot from only a small limited fixed area due to the nature of the ball return device. The ball return path is in no way reciprocal or parallel to the shot path. Second, many errant shots bounced off the rim or backboard and easily avoided the retrieval and return mechanism altogether, as the only retrieval mechanism is a large collector to retrieve those shots that fortuitously enter it. The device has no means to control and/or redirect rebounds and other missed shots.
While Spier U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,921 provided a device having a directable return means for good shots, several problems remained unresolved. First Spier provided no means for collecting missed shots. Second, the utility of the return chute was distinctly limited in that it was designed to return balls to the designated player at a predefined distance from the basket (15 feet); and the directional control of the chute required adjustment just below hoop level, and inconvenient position for most users of more normal stature.
Caveney, U.S. Pat. No. 3,901,506 taught a device which was similarly limited in that the ball return means was attached to a fixed location on the basketball court floor. Further, the rebound collection means was so located that it could interfere with shots that would otherwise hit the hoop and/or backboard. Additionally, the rebound collection means could easily and even intentionally cause a missed shot to bound further from the shooter than the rebound itself would have gone had the device not been installed. Finally, the rebound collection means of Caveney were visually distracting. The device thereby interfered with the overall purpose of the practice session and the reason for having the device in the first place.
Therefore the problem of providing a means whereby a designated player may obtain concentrated practice in shooting basketballs at a hoop from a number of easily and quickly changed positions and directions relative thereto while having the ball quickly and conveniently returned to said player without extraneous distractions, remains; it is toward the solution of this problem to which the present invention is directed.